1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device and method, program, and a recording medium, and in particular relates to an information processing device and method, program, and a recording medium to efficiently provide increasingly usable information to users who are mobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, IC (integrated circuit) cards have become widely used for passenger tickets for trains and so forth, and these IC cards are increasingly used for shopping and so forth. Hereafter, new services are expected, such as integrating functionality similar to the IC cards into portable telephones that users have, whereby information can be provided to the portable telephone of the user as necessary from railway companies or stores for example, as well as financial data such as fares for passenger tickets or bills for shopping.
On one hand, services using portable telephones have increased over the years, and recently, services are provided whereby a GPS (Global Positioning System) function is loaded on the portable telephone and a navigation path is provided to a user destination.
Additionally, wireless technology has also improved recently, and for example, the realization of data exchange, regardless of device such as personal computers, peripheral equipment, home electric products, or portable telephones, is anticipated, with a wireless transmission method using a 2.4 GHz bandwidth (so-called Bluetooth), and additionally, technology for communication between a sending device and reception device using a conductor other than a normal communication medium such as a person has been proposed (for example, PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 11-509380 or Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-229357). It is anticipated that such wireless communication technology will be used with electronic equipment held by a user such as a portable telephone, and new services not previously available will be provided.